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Mass Effect | 
| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $19.99
You Save: $10.00 (33%)
New (20) Used (9) from $19.99
Rating:  199 reviews
Sales Rank: 1113
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp
Genre: shooter_action_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 19081
Model: 19081
UPC: 014633190816
EAN: 0014633190816
ASIN: B00140P9BA
Release Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: DVD has some light scuffs and scratches, but overall very good shape with original case/manual/and REGISTRATION KEY
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| Features:
| • | Experience a rich and engrossing story where your choices decide the fate of galaxy | | • | Engage in emotionally charged interactions with the most realistic digital actors ever seen in a video game, using an innovative new dialog system | | • | Immerse yourself in an incredible new adventure from world-famous masters of the RPG; BioWare | | • | Stunning high resolution graphics, optimized GUI and controls for PC gamers | | • | Dominate the battlefield with new individual squad member command system |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
You are Commander Shepard of the starship Normandy and you are the last hope for all life in the Galaxy. Saren, a rogue member of the elite and untouchable Spectre agents, has discovered the secret to unleashing an apocalyptic force on the galaxy, and only you stand in his way. To save the lives of billions, you must do whatever it takes to stop Saren and prevent the return of an ancient force bent on the destruction of all organic life.
High resolution visuals - highly detailed textures, characters and environments Fully customizable controls - you can re-map the control scheme any way you like Run & Gun Control - You can assign biotic powers or skills to 'hot keys' allowing you to play Mass Effect with a heavier focus on action Decryption mini-game New inventory screen GUI and functionality - The enhanced inventory system makes it easier for you to equip and modify your weapons and armor
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Great Space Opera December 4, 2008
J. Hacker
If you enjoyed Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic you will defiantly enjoy this game. The story is pretty original and the combat is enjoyable.
pluses
* Fun Combat
* Great Character Graphics
* Controls work pretty good for combat
* Story that's entertaining and draws you into the game and keeps you playing to see what happens next
* Great Voice Acting
negatives
* DRM
* Inventory screen sucks
* Although the character graphics are good the world graphics are very plain and low quality (I assume this is because its a port from the Xbox 360 which is limited in its graphics compared to a PC)
* Game feels very short even with all the side quests (Another limitation from being a Xbox 360 port?, I guess they can only fit so much on a Xbox disc)
* Responses you can choose from are pointless for the most part as you will still end up in the same place regardless of which choice you make
* RPG skills seem superficial, I can snipe easily with my pistol as I can with my sniper rifle. Even though I don't have any skill points in my pistol skill set. Go figure
* The controversial ""sex scene"" is nothing more then a PG rated movie sex scene, have no idea what the controversy was about.
* There are some NPC's you can talk to on your ship but there story never gets updated after the first time you talk to them, they just keep saying the same things over again. I'm guessing they had to release the game before they got around to writing dialog for these crew members.
 It's probably better on X-Box December 4, 2008
baylor (Minneapolis, MN USA)
All review numbers should be high. After all, nobody buys a game they expect to hate. So when you see low scores, that's often a sign of disappointment from someone who wanted to be a fan.
i have played the PC version of Mass Effect far enough to get all the characters but quit after that. The biggest reason is technical. i've double checked a couple of times now and my system exceeds the recommended specs and i still get single digit frame rates, even with all the options turned low. This is surprising given that Mass Effect is nowhere near as pretty as other games that play just fine on my PC (Bioshock, Gears of War, Stranglehold, etc.). i don't normally have problems playing games, but this one is ridiculously slow. At a minimum, they should change their minimum and recommended specs.
The game is unstable, and when it crashes, it tends to crash your whole system. It's been a long time since i've had to reboot my PC three times an hour. i've installed the patch and done all the standard things (latest drivers, etc.) but this game just doesn't want to stay up. i know some of the problems are related to the anti-copying Secure-ROM software (which many people here have already said is unethical; at a minimum, it should tell users it will be installed and give them a way to uninstall it when they uninstall the game). My review isn't based on the ethics of Secure-ROM but i can say that it's caused me to reboot at least once. Most problems, though, i'm guessing are because the port from XBox to PC wasn't done very well.
As for the game, it's your standard Bioware game. You've probably played others and know if you like them or not. They're not for everyone. If you look at their history, Bioware has slowly moved from making role-playing games to making movies. It's well known to game designers that it's hard to get both a strong plot and open, flexible gameplay. Some games try hard (e.g., GTA) but Bioware realizes its talent is in story telling, not graphics, AI or level design (none of which the game does well; the AI is a surprising step backwards from Jade Empire but still better then KotOR). Continuing that trend, Mass Effect is a lot like watching cut scenes with occasional game play. Oddly, a lot of that game play is first person shooter. Bioware does not make good first person shooters. With the FPS aspect, the game actually feels a lot like Deus Ex, a game many people liked, but not as an FPS.
The story, characters, quests, etc. are probably pretty good. i can't say i'm in love with many of the characters (Rex is OK, but not as much fun as HK-47 or Boo). It doesn't seem as good as Jade Empire but it does offer significantly more places to explore than that game did. The love plot, a staple of all recent Bioware games, isn't done very well here (at least when i played a female character). i can't tell you how the game story, subquests, etc. turn out over the long run because i gave up on the game (80% technical reasons, 20% boredom).
As always, the graphics are serviceable but not impressive. Levels are linear and make the world feel very small (Bioware has a talent at making a major city feel like it was the size of an average high school). You still can only select two allies and you have no control over them. That's always been a ridiculous limitation which i assume they use to compensate for the poor pathfinding. Bioware AI tends to be towards the bottom end of the AAA game developers.
But you don't buy a Bioware game to, um, play a game. Bioware games are epic stories containing characters with character. If you liked previous Bioware games (or Deus Ex) and don't mind the new console FPS-like combat system, you'll probably enjoy this game. Assuming your computer will let you play it.
A Fantastic Space Epic December 3, 2008
R. Khan (USA)
I know there is a lot of controversy over Bioware's use of DRM and although I agree they should find a better way to protect against piracy, I can't fault the quality of the game over these other issues.
This is a great space epic. I really enjoyed Bioware's vision of the future and the amount of detail they put into populating our galaxy. The races, the different cultures, the wars, the technology, it was well thought out.
The story was also very good, even with the basic fact that the main character is already a well respected warrior, instead of the typical peasant from nowhere. The enemies were well developed as well, as was the great danger the galaxy faced.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. Comparable to Baldur's Gate and KOTOR and definitely better than NWN or Jade Empire. I look forward to the reported sequel.
 SecuROM ruins it November 28, 2008
BioFlamingo
It is very unfortunate that they have to give such a promising game the death touch that is SecuROM. There is absolutely no way I'm letting EA put Malware on my PC. Games like Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations prove that games can do extremely well without SecuROM. You have to have an activation key to get updates, but it never expires and you only have to enter it once as long as you have the same email address. Piracy is much worse for SecuROM games than others. EA is actually making things worse for themselves. I recommend that no one should buy EA games, however tempting it is. And definitely don't buy used ones as you may not even be able to install it.
Never able to load game November 26, 2008
Celedin (California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Have a top end system, but never could get the game to load. Sucks to be me.
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